TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey on welcoming back the full in-person festival and the 'power' of the Toronto audience

Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, is pictured during a press junket in Toronto on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Sold-out theatres, glitzy parties and crowded red carpets.

It’s a scene that probably seemed impossible at many points over the last two-and-a-half years, as the COVID-19 pandemic closed down theatres and upended day-to-day life.

But Cameron Bailey always knew that the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) would return to something resembling its pre-pandemic form, believing first and foremost that the “power” of the Toronto audience would eventually draw Hollywood heavyweights back north of the border.

“We never had any doubt that we are still TIFF,” Bailey, who is the festival’s CEO and prior to that served as its longtime artistic director, told CP24.com last week. “It is exciting to know that we can come back strong but we never doubted who we were and we knew that once the time was right and the restrictions were lifted we would be good.”

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While TIFF was held in both 2020 and 2021, it was a scaled-down version of the mammoth event with fewer showings and capacity restrictions that limited attendance and even prohibited the sale of concessions.

The festival returns to its more typical form on Thursday, bringing with it one of its most anticipated lineups in years with 63 world premiers and hundreds of other films.

Prior to opening night, CP24.com spoke with Bailey about his excitement to play a small role in the city’s ongoing economic recovery, as well as what makes watching a movie in a packed theatre impossible to replicate.

Q: So I know TIFF didn’t disappear during the pandemic, like so many events did, but it was certainly different and wasn’t held at anywhere near the same scale. Does this feel like the return of TIFF as we know it?

A: In some ways it does. You know, we found ways to keep the festival going and to bring it to our audience during the last two years of the pandemic. We did drive-ins for the first time, we launched an online platform and we learned a lot. But what we couldn't do is really bring people into the city in the large numbers that we had for many, many years and that's what I'm really excited about. It is the filmmakers, the stars, the industry, the media, the people who take their vacations and drive up from from the states or from other parts of Ontario, I’m excited for all of them to be back.”

Q: Yeah, through the pandemic you relied on things like drive-in screenings and online streaming to show some of these films. But that is a very small part of the festival this year. Is that intentional? Are you sort of championing the idea of returning to the theatre?

A: Yeah. I mean we have seen from the summer blockbusters like ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘ that people are ready to go back to movie theatres if the right things are there and fall season always brings some of the more artistically ambitious movies and awards contenders and we are excited to have a lot of those at the festival. But yes, of course, we definitely want people back in movie theatres. It remains, I think, the best way to experience film. It is not the only way and we all watch lots of stuff at home as well. But we wanted to focus on the in-person experience and the collective experience of watching a movie together and just feeling that emotion amplified because you are feeling it in a room with hundreds of other people. Whether it is a drama, a suspense movie, a comedy, everything is just heightened and bigger when you are in a theatre. So we wanted to bring that back. At the same time we didn’t want to completely put away some of the gains we made over the last two years and we do have at-home access for a taste or a sampling of the festival, and that's available all across Canada. There are about two dozen films that will be available online and people will be able to get sense of the festival experience from wherever in the country they are.

Q: TIFF is ultimately about the films but it also has this reputation being perhaps the most accessible film festival, with massive screenings at Roy Thomson Hall, public red carpets and a bit of a street party along King Street that opening weekend. What does it mean to you to have that part of the festival back?

A: Oh, it is fantastic. And I really have to thank the City of Toronto and Mayor (John) Tory who very early on said we want to bring this back this year. We were beginning to make plans fairly early in the year. We still had to wait to see what the public health situation was going to be like but we got the go ahead and we were putting on I think a great show on Festival Street. It'll be for the first four days of the festival. There'll be all kinds of activations and fun stuff to do through our partners. We'll have nighttime screenings in David Pecaut Square that will be free for everyone and you can just come and check out a classic movie that we are showing. So there's just all kinds of great stuff that we couldn't do for the last two years and we're thrilled to be able to bring it all back.”

Q: Do you have an appreciation for where the return of TIFF sort of fits in within the city’s ongoing economic recovery? There have been big events that have returned to the streets this summer certainly but for the downtown hospitality industry, which struggled so much through the pandemic, TIFF might just be the biggest.

A: Absolutely. I mean, I live here. This is my city. I have spent nearly all of my life here and, you know, just the other day I was walking home from the (TIFF Bell) Lightbox here along King Street and just seeing people's sprucing up their restaurants and their bars and getting ready for the festival, you get a sense that we're all setting the stage to welcome a whole lot of people to town and to just open up the city. It's something we have missed and I know that there are a whole lot of people whose businesses are really depending on the thousands of people coming to town, the money they'll spend, the way they'll just make their places come alive and I'm really glad to be bringing that back.

Q: So put yourself in the mindset of a festival goer, someone who might be coming to the event for the first time or maybe just someone who is making the trip for the first time since 2019. How do you build that perfect itinerary when there are more than 200 films to choose from?

A: I think just make the time. Make a plan. Decide what films you want to see and get a sense of what's the movie that's going to affect you the most, that you're most into but then always leave room for surprises. You know, you're going to run into somebody who says ‘I just saw this amazing movie, it changed my life. You have to see it.’ and then maybe you do want to see that one instead. Maybe you want to take in a talk instead of a film. We have Taylor Swift. We have Viola Davis. We've got incredible people coming to town to sit down and to be in the room with some of those great artists I think is something that you want to take in as part of the festival too. You also just want to be able to share stories, you know, to tell other people what you've seen, what you've liked, and what has gotten you excited. That's part of the experience of the festival. It is not just being in the movie theater, but actually being able to share your take on a movie with other people.

Q: Probably one of the films that is going to be on a lot of people’s lists is ‘The Fabelmans.’ It is getting its world premiere here and it is actually the first film that Steven Spielberg has brought to TIFF, which is kind of surprising.

A: Yeah, it is unprecedented for us and we're thrilled to be able to present the world premiere here. I have to say it's a testament to the Toronto audience, you know. Although Spielberg hadn't been here before Universal Pictures, the studio behind this movie, is here just about every year. They know the festival. They know what it can do for a film and they know how that starts with the audience. The reaction in the room from the Toronto audience is known all over the world as something really unique here, how enthusiastic they are for movies, how informed they are about movies, how they can really kind of just anoint a film as something that everybody else needs to see. That has happened so many times here before. So I think the team behind The Fabelmans came to Toronto and came to us looking to be able to present it in front of the Toronto audience. And look, when I saw it, when our team saw it, we responded very positively. I've been a big fan of Spielberg's work for many years. I think he's just a master craftsman and artist in film. Nobody does what he can do with film to really just bring an audience on this incredible emotional experience. So I think the combination of our reaction and their knowing the strengths of the Toronto audience is why we're able to present that world premiere.

Q: You must have had some concerns over the last three years that TIFF risked losing some influence, especially last year when so many festivals returned and you were still subject to capacity limits and things of that nature. But here you are hosting this incredibly in-demand premiere. Does it sort of reassure you that TIFF is still TIFF sort of speak?

A: Yeah, I mean, we never had any doubt that we are still TIFF. We always knew we had to work within whatever the public health restrictions here were and in 2021 there were other countries with other festivals that didn't have the same restrictions that we did here in Canada and in Ontario. But we had to work within that and we were ready to do that. This year there are so many films that are launching here - and it is not just ‘The Fabelmans’ – that show the industry and the filmmakers are ready to come back and know the value of launching a movie here. That is gratifying and it is exciting to know that we can come back strong but we never doubted who we were and we knew that once the time was right and the restrictions were lifted we would be good.